Social Security Agreement with Ireland - Revised Agreement

What's New?

The revised social security agreement with Ireland will limit coverage of Disability Support Pension (DSP) to people who are severely disabled, extend coverage of Parenting Payment to widowers (to reciprocate Irish coverage) and retain the method of calculating the Australian pension rate for people who temporarily depart or visit Australia for periods of 26 weeks or less. The revised agreement will also contain provisions to avoid double coverage of seconded workers, which affects Australia's Superannuation Guarantee scheme.

Background

The current social security agreement with Ireland was signed in 1991, and requires revision due to changes in both countries' social security systems. This is the last of Australia's international social security agreements to be renegotiated to limit the coverage of DSP to the severely disabled. This change is in line with government reforms to DSP that commenced in 1991.

Extending Australian Parenting Payment to widowers with dependent children reciprocates coverage provided by Ireland and eliminates gender bias in the agreement.

The new agreement also ensures the method for calculating the rate of Australian pension remains unchanged when pensioners visit or depart Australia temporarily for periods of 26 weeks or less. As well as reducing the number of overpayments and simplifying administrative processes, this also brings the agreement into line with Australia's more recent social security agreements with other nations.

The new agreement includes provisions to avoid double coverage, so that people who are sent between Australia and Ireland to work temporarily will remain covered only by their home country's retirement savings scheme for that work (for Australia this is the Superannuation Guarantee scheme).